I have a confession to make about hot wings.
It’s an embarrassing habit at this point- a messy bar food obsession all of my friends have come to accept on my behalf. While other women pick and choose their bar eats with a nod to public decency, you can always find me wrist deep in wing sauce on a night out.
On the side of the platter is a garnish of curious interest that always seems to get left behind. That poor stalk of celery, delivered in hope at the dawn of the night, is time and time again whisked away by the bar staff with my empty Japanese ale bottles.
Oh celery, what do you even bring to the table?
Old Money Vegetables: Victorian Obsessions
Let’s go back to the early 1800s when celery was the prohibitively expensive prima donna of the dining table.
“Celery was expensive, you say? This boring vegetable that only comes to life when paired with onions and carrots in a Mirepoix?”
Strange but true!
Supply and demand drove this Victorian craze, and it’s fickle growing conditions means it wasn’t an easy access commodity. Incapable of growing unless the soil was wet and the crops were covered with cloth or boards to block the light, celery was a difficult crop for pre-industrial agricultural to “get right”.
The leafy green was a prized and highly valued vegetable, gracing the upper crust of European and American tables.
Victorian-age New Yorkers claimed they loved celery third out of all foods (first and second place claimed by coffee and tea). It’s place at the table was more prized- and more expensive- than caviar.
The Titanic offered it at every first class dinner.
Special glass dishes were crafted just to display the stuff. Wealthy Victorians plopped this vegetable, leaves and all, in an intricate vase filled with water to keep it crisp. It would sit on display throughout the evening like an Edible Arrangement for guests to consume as a palate cleanser.
What a time to be alive.
But, just like this morning’s most popular Twitter trends, it didn’t last. Celery would soon trickle down to the middle finding its final resting place beside my hot wings on the weekend.
How? Let me explain…
Celery Sidelined As The Plain Jane Dinner Accessory
Celery was everywhere by the 1870s. Advances in industrial agriculture has given US farmers the necessary equipment to “crack the code” on this fickle crop’s growth. The cooler regions of Southern California and New York state became perfect sites for mass production.
With the rise in access, celery found its way to more tables.
Soon everyone, not just the elite, had a special vase filled with this crunchy must-have. Glass manufacturers capitalized on the trend by releasing a “modern”, flat-style celery display vase to boost sales.
Cookbooks boasted delicious health benefits from baked celery bread loaves, almond braised celery, marinated celery hearts. Five star restaurants served it au gratin, while at home dinner parties there were celery aperitifs and celery desserts stuffed with cream cheese and sugar.
So, what happened?
It became too mainstream.
Without it’s exclusivity, it lost its appeal. (Sound familiar, kale? Too close to home, wheat grass shots?)
As the world moved on, the vases were shoved to the back of the hutch. I think the last time I used one, we stacked corn on it at a July 4th BBQ…
In fact, I got a little sad researching celery, too. My partner woke up and found me in front of my laptop the morning after this dive into the history of garnishes. Years of pulling it out of bloody marys and yet- here we were at brunch, lady Celery used to garnish the side of my eggs benedict.
For the Modern Day: Juice and Nothing Else
Will there ever be glory again for celery or is it doomed to be the last crudite left to dry out on the office party tray?
Celery had a bit of a comeback in 2018 as a juicing mainstay. It is chock full of vitamins and minerals, a single stalk with leaves introduces almost 20 antioxidants into your diet. Health gurus claim celery as a preventative for cancer, a natural route for avoiding diabetes, and more- which led to a brief holistic-driven resurgence for the vegetable.
But while Kardashians, Goop, Dr. Oz gave this vegetable a glowing celebrity endorsement, it wasn’t enough to keep it around in everyone’s crisper drawer.
After three short years of frame it’s now the only vegetable left behind in a Whole Foods during New York’s latest batch of extreme winter weather. Panic buyers didn’t see the point in stocking up on it.
Making Room on the Table for Humble Celery
You may consider celery a mainstay around Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it has so much more potential to shine. We don’t have to relegate this once-famous green to our children’s lunch boxes or turkey stuffing.
I decided to give it a second chance.
This recipe from Alison Roman came up while researching celery’s rocky past, so I picked up the ingredients to cook it for my partner last evening. We sat down to dinner (I make a mean whole roasted chicken) and plated up heaping portions of this celery and potato side.
As a nod to its former glory, I even pulled out one of our wide mouth mason jars, to display the remaining celery bulb. My partner smiled at me, this recipe the perfect balance of savory flavor and crunchy texture. Maybe celery will find itself in our grocery cart more often…
Here’s to celery – and it’s future.
Noa Levit
